


Point of View

by LoudLucy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 12:10:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6374221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoudLucy/pseuds/LoudLucy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chikara spends a lot of time looking at Tanaka.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Point of View

**Author's Note:**

> I think about Tanaka a lot. I like to think that Ennoshita does too.
> 
> EDIT: It has been about a week since I posted this, and I cannot BELIEVE all of the kindness I have received for this fic! From the outside looking in, the Haikyuu fandom always seemed like a really nice place to be, and now I'm certain that my suspicions were correct. Thanks everyone so much for reading/liking/commenting on this :)

It’s the middle of practice and Tanaka Ryuunosuke is talking animatedly with Hinata. The two boys are sweaty—everyone in the gym is—and the moisture on Tanaka’s tan skin refracts the fluorescent light and highlights his muscles nicely. All at once, Tanaka laughs wildly and ruffles the hair on Hinata’s head so violently that Hinata’s knees almost buckle. Ennoshita Chikara bites his lip and looks away.

Chikara spends a lot of time looking at Tanaka.

Looking at Tanaka isn’t that strange. If Chikara is being honest, Tanaka’s personality is the second most attention grabbing on their team, outshone only by Hinata’s. Tanaka is always making loud, boisterous statements about his own ability. He screams and yells and pumps his fists whenever anything goes his way, and even when he hits a ball into the net or misses a serve, he usually shouts “I’ll get the next one!” as loudly as he can. He’s always pumped up and filled with rowdy energy—a savage whirlwind of blustering bravado. No one could blame Chikara for watching him because _everyone_ watches Tanaka sometimes. It’s impossible not to.

Chikara rationalizes that the reason he’s particularly interested in watching Tanaka is that they’re polar opposites of each other. Tanaka wears his emotions on his sleeve. When he’s pissed everyone knows it. When’s he joyful everyone knows it. Even when he’s upset everyone knows it—Shimizu has shut him down enough times now, and he never pretends to be too cool to be bummed. His face is a perfectly clear window into his emotions.

In contrast, Chikara finds that he himself is constant to a fault. His resting face is a mild smile, and all of the expressions he makes are very subtle variations on that theme. When he’s annoyed, his eyebrow might quirk. When he’s happy, his smile might widen a fraction. When he’s disappointed, he’s careful not to let the ripple of negative feeling spread to anyone else. His mother has asked him before what he had been feeling in particular family photos, and though Chikara himself always knows, no one else seems to.

It’s exhilarating, Chikara reasons, to be around someone who feels things so viscerally. No one has ever accused Tanaka of being cerebral, but Chikara has never found Tanaka dim—he just shines too brightly. His presence is too commanding. He’s impossible to forget, incapable of fading into the background. He makes Chikara feel more and feel _different_. His enthusiasm is contagious, and when they’re on the court together or studying together or walking out of practice together Chikara feels his usual emotions _heightened_. At least to Chikara, he’s captivating.

And it’s okay to be captivated, to be appreciative, since it’s been all but decided that the two of them will be captain and vice-captain next year (since Nishinoya is technically ineligible). It makes perfect sense that Chikara would like and get along with the person he’s about to be spending so much time with. They have to be their _own_ team next year, a united front, so maybe watching Tanaka closely will help Ennoshita to understand more about what makes him tick, even if he is a pretty open book.

He’s still not sure how they’ll be as captain and vice-captain. In fact, Chikara is pretty certain that their roles should be reversed. He has always felt more comfortable in a supporting role, and though Tanaka doesn’t have a lot of sense for strategy, he leads by example. He’s indomitable, indefatigable, and he’s the only one of the second years that didn’t quit. Even Noya, so dedicated and talented, was ready to walk away at one point, but while the rest of them were working through their personal qualms, Tanaka was still playing volleyball; he was teaching and supporting the first years; he was making himself into a person that everyone on the team could admire.

Kageyama sets Tanaka a beautiful toss, and Tanaka slams it home past Tsukishima’s block. The ball hits the court with a resounding _smack_ and then rockets off towards the other end of the gym. It was perfect, and, as was typical when he did anything perfectly, Tanaka whoops and hollers and rips off his shirt, whirling it around his head.

Chikara purses his lips slightly, annoyed both at Tanaka’s bad example and his own desire to scan Tanaka’s body, to memorize every ripple of muscle on Tanaka’s torso before Daichi can tell him to behave like an actual second year and put his shirt back on.

It’s _this_ type of looking that Chikara hopes nobody notices because it’s all well and good to look at Tanaka when he does something ridiculous, but Chikara can’t seem to stop looking at him once the game resumes and it’s back to business. He tries to make up reasons for it, but he knows that the reasons are actually excuses, and hollow ones at that.

It all started a couple months ago. Chikara was walking to one of his classes when he saw Daichi, Suga, Asahi, and Tanaka standing in the school hallway, talking seriously. Chikara had a feeling that the conversation was about the mysterious rift that had opened up between Hinata and Kageyama. Their oddball duo was refusing to work together as they normally did, and it had everyone just the littlest bit worried.

Chikara hesitated, waffling between going over to talk with his friends and letting them keep their conversation to themselves, and that was when he saw it.

Daichi had said something, and Suga, Asahi, and Tanaka smiled. Suga looked like he always did—pleasant, unperturbed, supportive of Daichi. Asahi made an expression that was typical of him as well—softly smiling, a subtle expression of admiration on his face. Tanaka though…

Chikara had never seen Tanaka smile like that. Usually Tanaka’s smiles were toothy and bombastic. Usually they were a threat or a boast or a declaration of war. But _this_ one…it was small—confident without being domineering. It was sure. In fact, it was _captainly_ , as though whatever Daichi had said had passed the spirit of his solidity over to Tanaka.

Something clicked inside Chikara’s head at that point. Something twisted in his gut. He remembered feeling like he had just seen something he shouldn’t have seen, even though it was just a harmless conversation between some of his good friends. He turned and walked away, telling himself that he had somewhere to be but feeling inside himself the need to hide and sort through whatever crazy feeling was coursing through him. Of _course_ stupid Tanaka Ryuunosuke would make him feel something so strong and so sudden and so overwhelming because, despite Chikara’s best efforts, that’s what Tanaka had been doing all along.

Ever since that day, Chikara has been looking for that smile, and though Chikara had never seen it before that point, it’s actually an expression that Tanaka makes quite often.

It’s just that Tanaka always smiles that sure, handsome smile at all the times people _aren’t_ looking at him. Like when Tsukishima whispers to Asahi about a trick play they’re about to make, or when the team is congratulating Kageyama about a particularly tricky feint, or when Hinata is laughing and smiling and talking with Yamaguchi on the sidelines. Tanaka smiles that stupid smile when his own attention is focused outward—proud of, happy for, confident in his teammates and underclassmen.

And for some reason that makes Chikara treasure seeing it _more_. Because he’s discovered that the smile represents the very secret, still burgeoning mature side of Tanaka’s personality. Chikara thinks that if Shimizu could see it, she might not think he was such a fool. Chikara thinks that if other teams saw it, they might not underestimate him so much. Chikara even thinks about other people thinking about Tanaka’s hidden smile, and the feelings that thought evokes are frustrating and conflicting and hard to understand.

Chikara is still looking at Tanaka. In the three-on-three he’s playing with Hinata and Kageyama, he is now playing defense, focusing on Asahi’s hands and body as he executes a jump serve. In this stillness, Tanaka is also handsome. Much like Noya, when he’s focused and ready and poised to strike, Tanaka looks less like a simpleton and more like the upperclassman he strives to be. Chikara sighs softly, unembarrassed knowing nobody is paying attention to him like he’s paying attention to Tanaka.

Asahi’s serve ricochets off of Tanaka’s hands and flies directly at Chikara’s face. He’s used to this. Chikara’s hands come up quick as a whip to catch the ball before it can hit him or fly past him. “Don’t mind,” he says lightly, before rolling the ball back towards Asahi. Everyone directs their gaze back to the ball, to the game, but Chikara’s eyes settle right back onto to Tanaka.

And to his great surprise, Tanaka is also looking at him.

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr, [madidrawsthings's comic](http://madidrawsthings.tumblr.com/post/141570233147/ive-fallen-into-rarepair-hell-and-im-just-gonna) completely wrecked me, and now I'm in rarepair hell I think.
> 
> EDIT: There is now a _beautiful_ fanart about this fic by the very person who drew the comic that inspired it! Find it [HERE](http://madidrawsthings.tumblr.com/post/141910805527/and-to-his-great-surprise-tanaka-is-looking-back)!
> 
> This was an experiment in Ennoshita's character and also in present tense! I always write in past tense, so hopefully there aren't any tense problems!! Also, this is so short? Most everything I write is pretty long, and I kind of liked just doing one little scene :)
> 
> Always feel free to scream about fandom to me at batbrood.tumblr.com


End file.
